


Warming a Soul

by TheLadyStrange



Category: Avengers (Comics), Doctor Strange (2016), Doctor Strange (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Not Beta Read, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 07:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyStrange/pseuds/TheLadyStrange
Summary: @IronstrangePrompts: Prompt #398Tony thinks back to the first time Stephen fell asleep in his arms.@GoodThingsHappenBingo: I5 "Warm"





	Warming a Soul

The remnants of a highly pleasant New Years Eve dotted the coffee table and the floor. Tony knew it would have to be cleaned up and the lights turned off, but it was something to leave for later. Right now his focus was on his future and where it rested, fast asleep, in his arms. Stephen hadn’t even seen the ball drop, dropping into sleep nearly an hour before.  
Everyone knew how little rest Stephen got and had cheered in absolute silence as the ball dropped. Peter even taking all of the poppers and putting them in his backpack, later Tony would find them in rather spectacular fashion. Eventually though they had all left, wishing Tony a happy New Year in a whisper with a kiss to the forehead. Stephen received well wishes in the form of soft smiles and the smoothing of his hair and blanket. Now, nearly an hour later, the last of the fireworks fading from the sky beyond the large windows, Tony thought back to the very first time Stephen had fallen asleep in his arms while he watched the stars.  
It had been on Tony’s second ever foray into the depths of space.  
On the ship of the Ebony Maw on route to the being that had haunted Tony’s mind for years.  
In the wake of having rescued the wizard that had so briskly taken him from his walk and Pepper, Tony had focused only on finding a way out. A way to stop the deaths in his vision. He had been frantic, sending the kid to roam the ship and see what he could find. But he himself, though intending to do the same, had stopped looking. One hand had frozen over an alien console as FRIDAY spoke in his ear.  
“Boss, Doctor Strange’s vitals suggest he is going into shock.” The turn off is head had felt as slow a glacier, the blood in his veins seeming to drain away at the thought of losing the guy already. They may have only exchanged a few sentences, but somehow Tony knew that his words had truly been heard and not waved away before they could register. The sight of the trembling tortured man broke his heart, the emotions strange in their intensity, and had him jogging across the large room.  
Once there, standing over the shaking man, he was suddenly at a loss of how to proceed. It was the red cloak, patting the man’s cheek until he raised his head, that had him moving again. Stiffly, he turned his back to the wall the wizard sat against and slid down to the floor. In a sudden fear for what had come to him in the past, he stared out the large window as he coughed and raised an arm to let the other get close.  
There was a pause.  
And then a broad swath of red was slithering around his back and a tentative shoulder pressing under his arm. Without thought his hand moved to curl around the shivering man and pull him closer. They settled there, cradled in the gloom of the ship, and watched the stars and galaxies go by. Tony never forgot the heat that built where their bodies met. Of the careful press of a cheek against his chest as the man slowly relaxed into his embrace.  
Tony hardly saw anything that went by. The very splendor of the universe was his to see and yet his senses focused instead upon the minute motions of the man in his arms. The slow glide into sleep, the press of a face closer to his warmth, and the tremble of icy shaking hands seeking the soothing heat of his stomach. Far, far into the future Peter would tell him that he had been crying then. That Peter had been scared the other man had died until he saw the slow rise and fall of breaths.  
But in the moment, even the return of Peter was eclipsed by the warmth blooming in his soul. Somehow, not even a day after they had met, this man, Doc-, _Stephen_ had shown more trust than anyone he could think of. Tony had only hoped to prove worth such trust.  
Though in the aftermath of Titan, he had wondered. _What could Stephen have possibly seen to make his life worth half the universe?_ But while Stephen had never told him; here in the present, married to the man he had held together the day they met, he knew that he was Stephen’s universe.


End file.
